17years&waiting

If you believe that McDermott truly doesn't believe in passing, then why move on from Tyrod for Allen? Tyrod was literally the perfect quarterback for your version of McD -- play it safe, turnover adverse, etc. Yet, in less than half a season, McD benched Tyrod and then after that season replaced him with Allen.

I was there in 2017 -- very warm, sunny day, as others have noted. I remember how loud the stadium was when Tre forced that fumble. Shady had a great game. Winston had a great game - just threw it all over the field; I thought he was going to be a star after watching it.

He's one of the better ones, in my opinion.

I know from reading this board that I'm in the minority, but I really am quite happy with the amenities/scoreboards/options at New Era Field. Who the heck needs all that extra stuff? I went to the Detroit Red Wings new arena a couple years ago. Massive concourses, restaurants/bars all over the arena, a "gondola" seating section above the ice, etc. And it didn't really change my experience for the better. Just my two cents.

Blasting crowd noise? If fans won't be allowed in the stadiums or not at full capacity, I really hope neither the stadiums nor the TV broadcast pipes in artificial crowd noise. Keep it natural, imo.

Completely agree. If you need 5 minutes to review a play, then maybe the call on the field wasn't so bad. I'm thinking specifically of the Kelvin Benjamin TD against the Pats a couple years ago. Questionable catch (it was Benjamin after all), but called a TD on the field. Replays were inconclusive. 5-10 minutes of real time replay review and the TD was overturned. I don't need every call to be 100% correct. I just want the overly egregious errors corrected. It's why I didn't like the Pass Interference challenges last year -- correct the blatantly bad miscalled. Don't challenge anything else.

I have been considering seasons again, too (had them for a season about 5 years ago). I'm only able to make 2-3 games a year, so a scenario where I'm limited to 2ish games would be ideal. Looking on the Bills website, there seems to be very limited selection of available seats. When you spoke with the sales rep, did he mention or comment on amount of tickets remaining for the season?

I haven't read the article and I haven't read every page in this thread, but I think I get the idea. A couple thoughts: 1) Is it really possible to make money on any of the minor league teams (Amerks, Knighthawks, Bandits)? I think the best run minor league teams make barely any money. The Rochester Red Wings are publicly owned, so we can see their financials. That's considered a really well run sports team and I think they do well to tread. So, I wouldn't be surprised if all 3 teams lose money. 2) Buffalo is still one of the poorest, smallest markets in major league sports. It has very little corporate presence, so the team can't charge top dollars for suites, club seats, etc. I'm sure in-stadium/arena advertising is much less than other major league teams. Same with market size. The Sabres may have massive TV ratings, but it's still a tiny market. The small ratings in New York, Boston, Washington, etc. may equal out to similar amounts of fan engagement. (I admittedly don't know how good ratings are for any of these teams, just saying). It may take really exceptional management to make money under these conditions for an NHL franchise. Add in many years of mediocre or poor performance on-ice, and losing money doesn't seem surprising. The NFL is a slightly different animal, with shared revenue (Thanks, Ralph), but the challenges of the Buffalo/WNY market are real. I can't judge how well PSE is run, but it may take absolute top-of-the line leadership to ever turn a profit. Just trying to add a different perspective.

Was watching this at the bar in MI tonight. My non-Bills friends were getting annoyed as I called out good Bills plays.... The disadvantage of not living in WNY anymore....

Reminds me of the old Dick Jauron joke threads from the old BBMB. Actually saved one of them: I'll start it off... everyone else feel free to post em up and we will see if we can get to 101. I'll try to keep the list updated and before someone gets stupid here... 1.this is just for fun, and 2.) even if you like him hell have a lil offseason fun at his expense... he is a big boy he can take it. 8.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 with an 8-8 start 9.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 with the refs throwing every game FOR him 10.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 in a 32 game season 11.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 with the '72 Dolphins 12.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 with with the '85 Bears 13.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 with the 2007 Patriots 14.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 with with a 5-1 headstart on the season 15.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 in a 15 game season 16.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 in 18 holes of golf. 17.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 managing Burger King. 18.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 by only playing against 10 guys on offense and 10 guys on defense. 19.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 during a lockout. 20.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 playing madden on rookie level 21.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 with the other teams trying to throw every game 22.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 with divine intervention 23.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 on "The View". 24.) Dick Jauron could finish 7-9 even if the numbers "7" and "9" didn't exist.

My problem with this theory is that he benched and then cut Tyrod. If McD really wanted to win 13-10 every week and have no mistakes on offense, then Tyrod would still be QB. We already had the QB to make that happen and McD went out of his way to get rid of him. Because that's not how he wants to win.

This is probably the biggest piece of this season: how does Allen evolve as the league evolves towards his tendencies. Look at the Brady and Peyton's of the league: when defenses threw new wrinkles to slow them down, they evolved; they improved. They kept doing this until there was nothing they hadn't seen before and couldn't quickly figure out on the field. Same goes for Brees and Rodgers and all the other great QB's of the past 10-15 years. On the other side, look at the Goff's and Trubisky's of the league. Innovative coaches got them playing well, but now, defenses are adjusting and taking away what they know how to do. I'm not sure they are adjusting for the next, better phase of their respective careers. Over the past month, the scheme seems to be throwing a ton of blitzers at Allen (I don't watch the All 22's or anything like that, so I could be wrong). It seemed like there were multiple instances where there were jailbreak blitzes, or the defense would send someone off the corner or edge that either Allen or Morse didn't know and adjust for. And it seemed like Allen really struggled with those plays. However, there was one play in the Dolphins game that stood out: it was in the 2nd half, maybe a 3rd and 7, and the Dolphins blitzed. Earlier in the game, it forced bad plays or throw aways. However, on this play, Allen stood tall and quickly hit Beasley, who got the first down. It was 1 play. It wasn't anything spectacular, but Allen didn't bail from the pocket, didn't make a bad read. He stood in the pocket, found his hot route and picked up the first down. It shows progress for Allen. I hope I'm not making too much of 1 play, but it was the best play I thought he made all day. Now keep doing it.

I was at the Big House yesterday. Didn't see many players I'd want from either team. Michigan's WR's were big recruits, but they haven't done anything. Black can't stay healthy. Peoples-Jones has trouble with health and disappears in games. It's hard to tell, because Shea Patterson has been pretty terrible, but the receivers haven't really developed.

I'm not a huge fan of the move towards indoor stadiums that resemble shopping malls more than football stadiums. Having said that, I've always hated the infield look at the baseball/football stadiums. Particularly when playing Miami on grass for years and years. I won't miss this at all.

Does he know how to catch long snaps? That alone should put him above Bojo.

My problem with this theory, solely as it relates to this year, is that it over-emphasizes the salary implications in 2019. An "over-investment" in RB money means that Beane is paying too much proportionally for RB's that the rest of the roster is suffocated of talent because not enough money is spent elsewhere. This is looking at the Salary Cap as a pie chart: people see a large slice of the pie being spent on RB's; therefore, this must be pared back. However, this is only relevant if the money being spent on McCoy is instantly reallocated to other position groups on the roster. In reality, this money is going to not be spent this season. Further, the Bills had amongst the largest unspent money in the NFL prior to cutting McCoy. This means that the Bills could have balanced this "over-investment" by spending closer to the cap without releasing McCoy. I'm not going to argue that the Bills haven't over invested on the running back position in the past; however, this wasn't a concern this year, considering the salary cap position of the team. McCoy meant nothing to that.

Lots of out-of-towners would love to see this sale online -- hopefully they can someday.

I remember being super excited to read the D&C on Monday's after a game, because the Sports section was usually 3-4 pages of Bills coverage. Back then, it was Sal, Leo, Scott Pitoniak writing about the Bills and Bob Matthews would usually write a little bit, too. Now if I'm in Rochester for a Monday after a game (usually around Christmas), the coverage is max 2 pages. it seems the paper has already cut back their Bills coverage quite a bit... Hopefully not too much more.

Also live in GR (We're 2 of about 10 Bills fans in West Michigan that I know of). I would say most people are Michigan/Michigan State fans out here and the Lions are a distant second.

Actually, Mr. Wilson wasn't behind this at all. He was a cheapskate with no loyalty to WNY, of course. He and his cronies had to be strong armed into having anything to do with this. Mark Poloncarz was actually the one who spearheaded and funded the whole thing. He will be humbly releasing these details in a book sequel scheduled for release in Summer 2023: right before his next political campaign.

I'm amazed that people are taking a politican's word as absolute truth. Especially because the people that could dispute this story are: deceased (RCW) and discredited (Russ Brandon) or the same political party (Cuomo/Schumer). Isn't there a potentially competitive Congressional seat up in Erie County next year? Build some street credit, try to establish yourself as a hero, and then try to win the seat. Sorry, I don't trust politicians. Regardless of political party. Especially not politicians whose only career work is in government.

I haven't seen this posted anywhere and I think it's an interesting list and relevant to this discussion, so here's CBS Sport's list of the NFL's top-10 coaches: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/top-10-head-coaches-in-nfl-bill-belichick-still-reigns-but-who-fills-out-the-rest-of-the-list/ I think there's a much higher perception in "league circles" of McDermott than Bills fans have. At any rate, should we be discussing firing a top-10 coach?? 9. Sean McDermott, Bills The Bills are just 15-17 in two seasons under McDermott, but he earned a lot of respect around the league for coaxing a 10-6 campaign out of a subpar roster in 2017. The Bills' offense took a step backward last year amid a massive personnel overhaul and quarterbacking done by rookie Josh Allen and injury replacements, but the defense showed significant strides, and that's the side of the ball McDermott calls home.

I agree. He is also brilliant at teaching the fundamentals and drilling situational football into his team's heads. How many times have we seen a Bills offensive player get stood up by one defender and the next defender comes in and rakes the ball away (last year it was Croom). They constantly get points at the end of the first half and then get the ball again in the second half and score. They always seem to be in the right place at the right time -- you may attribute it to luck, but you don't get lucky 17 years in a row.

I like beer and I like Zweigles, but I don't know if I could drink this. Cheers to those who try -- they are braver than I.

Unfortunately, I don't see much evidence of this. The metro has lost approximately 5,000 people over the course of this decade (if you look at census estimates for similar sized cities, they have grown substantially). Buffalo has very little corporations to buy luxury suites and clubs seats. And the same lack of corporations means that there aren't huge amounts of high-paying jobs. Turning decrepit factories into lofts does not equal a true upgrading, and it doesn't sustain an NFL team in the long run. Buffalo doesn't have the ability to generate huge amounts of new revenue compared to other cities that have NFL teams. Like many of us who have left Upstate New York, typically for areas with real job, wage, and population growth, you very quickly realize the "upgrading" in Rochester and Buffalo is really just self-serving politicans who are glorifying lipstick on a pig to save their jobs. I want the Buffalo Bills to be in Buffalo. For many of us, including me, it helps to tie us back to our Upstate NY roots. But to bury our heads in the sand and say the Bills don't have a revenue problem, that isn't easily solved, is not true. I hope I'm wrong.